Silver Tears
by Lithos Maitreya
Summary: Ruby Rose hasn't been the same since the battle in Vale. Her team is broken, her sister's a wreck, her partner's gone, and the general situation is falling apart. In her solitude and her hurt, she turns to another fractured Beacon team, and together they make for Mistral. But even as she turns her back on her team, she learns more about why she shouldn't-even if they did it first.


**A/N: This is a couple months later than I wanted; Ruby is damn hard. But the Volume 4 Character Short gave me the last details I needed to nail her down, and also gave me a deadline, since I didn't trust myself to remain uninfluenced by Volume 4 after October 22** **nd** **and I was sure as hell not planning on waiting a day longer than necessary to watch it.**

 **So I finished it in two days.**

 **The timeline should be self-explanatory, since a lot of conversations with Weiss are rewritten here. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is a 'sequel' to, in order of writing,** _ **Black Fang**_ **,** _ **Rising Dragon**_ **,** _ **White Walls**_ **, and** _ **Coming Home**_ **. (In chronological order, the only difference is that** _ **Black Fang**_ **should be placed between** _ **White Walls**_ **and** _ **Coming Home**_ **.) Each of those is a one-shot focusing on one of the other members of RWBY. Blake got two because Black Fang was a 1k-word drabble and she deserved better.**

 **Sorry for getting long-winded there. Please, enjoy.**

* * *

" _When I left my home  
And my family  
I was no more than a boy  
In the company of strangers  
In the quiet of the railway station,  
Running scared,  
Laying low,  
Seeking out the poorer quarters  
Where the ragged people go,  
Looking for the places  
Only they would know."_

-Simon and Garfunkel, _The Boxer_

 _Silver Tears_

* * *

Pale fingers ran silken along the cold steel of the blade, the touch seeming almost to frost the hand as it passed. Crescent Rose was laying on the table, in scythe form, for inspection. Ruby stood over it, her eyes and hands busily inspecting the various exposed workings.

As her fingers passed over the blade in a check for dulling, they stilled, and her brow creased over her silver eyes.

Her hands passed back, found the faint indentation in the steel where a heavy impact had altered the metal's shape.

Where had that come from?

Silver eyes closed as she tried to remember. Night, atop an airship, a mile or more in the air…

An explosion, shrapnel. A fragment of the hull had struck the scythe as she run. She was lucky it hadn't hit her; an impact at that velocity might've put a serious dent in her aura.

As it was, the slight disfigurement of the weapon was invisible, and only barely apparent to a physical inspection of the blade. It looked the same, it ran the same—only the closest observer would notice any damage.

 _Just like me._

* * *

The CCT had already been brought back online when Ruby awoke. Her first call was to Weiss, and she'd poured her heart out to her erstwhile partner; confessed her pain, her confusion.

Weiss had comforted her as best she could, but she was a world away. Ruby knew that—she just needed to talk through it all before anything else. After they hung up, she washed her face, dried her eyes, smiled at the mirror for a minute until it felt mostly real, and then picked up the scroll again.

"Jaune Arc," the answering voice was haggard, weary, and decades older than the bumbling boy she'd met barely more than a year ago. "Who is it?"

"It's Ruby, Jaune," she said, her voice gentle. "Are you… okay?"

The boy—no, man—at the other end sighed lowly. "I guess?" he muttered. "It's been a couple weeks and… it still doesn't feel real. I don't know. I heard you were comatose."

"I was," she said. "I woke up today. Are you back at your house?"

"Yeah," Jaune said, and there was something bitter in his voice. "Mom and dad were happy to see me; my sisters came home when they heard about everything…" He trailed off, and then started up again. "It's been years since everyone was home like this," he said. "There's always someone yelling at someone else, or a few of them giggling about some movie or something… Now they're all back and I just…"

"They all came back to keep you company," Ruby finished, the smile slipping from her face, "and you feel alone."

" _Exactly_."

 _Now you know how I feel every day._

"They're trying to help," Ruby said gently. "It's not their fault they don't get it."

"I know," Jaune grumbled. "It's just… so _frustrating_ , sometimes."

"I know, Jaune," she said, thinking of a one-armed blonde who _didn't get it_. "I know."

* * *

Ruby had taken to visiting the forge for want of something else to do. There was only one real public foundry on Patch, and she found herself spending one in every three or four days there, pouring over experimental weapon designs and burying herself in experiments with Crescent Rose.

Today she was experimenting with a reworked magazine ejector, using a new lubricant. It _should_ allow her to reload some three percent faster… if it didn't combust and ruin the rounds in the mag. Which it shouldn't.

She was just brushing the last of the oil onto the workings when a voice called from behind her. "Rose—Ruby, is that you?"

She turned. Blinked. It was a blond young man in heavy brown plate, a variable-length revolving gunblade strapped to his back. A mop of blond hair sat unkempt over his narrow, dark eyes, which were themselves sunk into a face that had seen better days by the faint dusting of unshaven stubble.

His name. What was it?

"Sky?" she hazarded.

"Dove," he corrected, his voice slightly hoarse—illness, or lack of use? "Dove Bronzewing. We never… really talked, did we?"

Dove Bronzewing was, from what little Ruby knew of him, a racist, a bully, and all around not a great guy. But his hollowed eyes and empty expression softened her.

"No," she agreed, a smile setting itself naturally on her face. "No, we didn't. It's nice to meet you. How had you been?"

He sighed, and a hand came up to rub at his eyes. "I've been better," he said.

It had been thirty-three days since Beacon fell, and Ruby understood. She smiled gently and nodded. "Are you in touch with your team?" she asked. "That can help." _At least, I think it would._

He nodded, then shrugged. "Well, Russel's been calling from Vacuo," he said. "They're _really_ not happy with Atlas over there, apparently—he's actually worried it'll come to war. They blame Atlas for what happened to Vale. Cardin's... I don't know. I know he's okay, but he's been out of touch. Sky used to live in Vale proper, but he's been relocated to a camp in Forever Fall while they try to clean up the city. He might be coming to Patch soon. I didn't know you lived here."

She nodded. "Born and raised," she said lightly. "Dad, Yang and I have a house just outside of town."

He didn't ask about a mother, and she noticed but was unsurprised. This was Remnant. Instead, he asked, "What about your team? You keeping in touch?"

She shrugged. "Blake's… off doing something, I guess," she said, her smile falling slightly against her will. "We can't get in touch with her. Weiss' father came and took her to Atlas just after the battle. And… well, did you hear about Yang?"

He winced. "I was guarding the field hospital," he admitted. "I saw her when they brought her in. Has she… you know, a… prosthetic?"

Ruby shook her head. "Not yet," she said. "I don't really know what the procedure is for that. I don't even know if she's asked about it. She's… having a lot of trouble. She's hurting."

Dove looked away. "I'll bet," he mumbled. "Every time I think I've got it bad… I just have to look at you girls… or team JNPR."

Ruby blinked sharply and looked down. "Yeah," she murmured. "I called Jaune a couple days ago. It's… hard, for him."

"Can you tell him I'm sorry?"

She looked up at the young man who had been little more than a faceless bully only a little more than a month ago. His narrow eyes, barely visible, were desperate; his unkempt hair and unshaven face, wild.

"I can't stop thinking about it," he said quietly. "Yeah, the guy cheated to get into Beacon, but he was also _there_ , in the middle of it, at the tower, and we were all screwing around fighting the Grimm in the city. And now Pyrrha Nikos—yeah, our best fighter, but his _partner_ —is…"

He swallowed, and looked away. "I can't stop thinking about what it would be like if it were Sky," he said, his voice choked. "I don't know exactly what happened, but whatever it was… he might not have been a Huntsman before, but nor was I."

A flash of white suddenly flickered in Ruby's vision, and a blink of warm silver eyes, and the scent of roses.

"Now we all are," she heard herself say.

Dove nodded mutely, not meeting her eyes.

She shook herself and clapped her hands. "So, what are you doing in the forge?" she asked, changing the subject.

He shrugged, looking back at her. "Just… didn't want to fall apart," he said dully. "Wanted to keep _something_ sharp, even if it's only Olive Defender."

She nodded understandingly. "You're not on the duty roster either, then?" she asked.

He shook his head. "None of us are," he said. "I think they're trying to reassemble teams from what notes Professor Ozpin left, but with Professor Goodwitch busy with repairs it can't be easy."

"I wonder if CFVY are still running," Ruby mused. "They're probably all still… well, together."

Dove looked away. "That's what I thought about you four, though," he said quietly.

* * *

Jaune came to Patch a few weeks later. He stayed away from their house, for Yang's sake, but Ruby saw him most days around the city, often with his family.

Other times, he would slip away from them and they would call her to find him, and he'd have been sitting alone in some café for hours on end with a single cup of coffee.

It was on one such occasion that Ruby slipped into the booth with him. The days were getting colder; fall was beginning to give way to winter, and the falling leaves had been joined by regular rains.

He glanced up at her as she sat down. His eyes were bloodshot, but there were no lines of tears on his cheeks. "Ruby," he mumbled.

"Jaune," she said gently.

She'd brought a cup of coffee of her own to the booth, and for a while was content to sip it silently, watching him.

"I can't believe she's gone," he mumbled. It wasn't the first time he'd said it, it wouldn't be the last, and the hollowness of his voice resonated now as it did every time.

She reached out and put a hand on his. "None of us can," she agreed softly.

His eyes closed for a moment. When they opened, they were sharper.

"Cinder," he said, as though testing the name on his tongue. "That's her name, right?"

She nodded.

He looked at her. "I want— I'm going to make her pay," he whispered.

 _Our enemy's trail leads all the way to Mistral…_

Ruby was brought up short. "Can I help?" she asked.

Jaune nodded. "I can't do it alone," he said. "I know I'm—I'm weak. If I hadn't been…"

Ruby closed her fingers around his. "None of us could have done anything," she told him firmly. "None of us were strong enough. We'll all get stronger together."

Jaune nodded sharply. "Yeah," he said tightly. "We will."

Even so, Ruby's mind flickered to a girl in bed, nursing a bandaged stump. _Well,_ she thought sadly, _most of us will._

* * *

Venturing into the wilds without support or permission was a venture, and preparation took time. Jaune brought Ren and Nora into the fold, and it hurt that Ruby couldn't do the same with her teammates, but she compartmentalized and moved on.

By the end of December, they had set out.

* * *

Ruby cradled her scroll idly with one hand while her other hand played with the hem of her battleskirt. "I don't want to worry her," she grumbled to Jaune, who was watching her with a hardness in his eyes. "Not when there's nothing she can do."

Jaune planted his feet and stopped walking. Behind him, Nora ran into his back with a muffled yelp. "We're not moving," he said flatly, "until you tell your _partner_ what we're doing."

She pouted at him. "What good would it do her to know, anyway?" she whined. "All it'll do is make her worry about me."

"She'd rather worry about you than find out later," Jaune said shortly. "And she'll notice anyway when you suddenly start missing your daily calls. Dial."

"Hmph," she grunted angrily, but punched in the number. It was answered on the first ring.

"Ruby, is something wrong?" Weiss' voice was sharp, as always, but also somehow eager.

"No, Weiss," Ruby reassured at once, "no, nothing's wrong. I just… wanted to keep you posted." She gave Jaune a meaningful glare, which he returned firmly. She sighed. "I'm here with JNP—uh, with Jaune, Ren, and Nora. We're… we're going to Mistral."

There was a pause. "Why on earth would you go there?" Weiss asked blankly, "and how are you getting there? Why didn't you mention this before?"

"Cinder's gone there," Ruby explained. "She's gone to Haven, and we want—need—answers. We're walking to Port North, and then we're taking a ferry to Mistral. I couldn't risk Dad hearing about it before I was already gone."

"You're _walking_?" Weiss hissed sharply, incredulously. Ruby winced at the harsh fear in her tone. "Across the wilds? Are you out of your mind, Ruby?"

"Weiss," Ruby reassured her partner, rolling her eyes at Jaune. "It's me. It's _us_. We'll be fine, I promise. But… I won't be able to call you for a few weeks while I'm outside of CCT coverage."

Weiss breathed in audibly once, letting it out as a sigh. "Ruby," she coaxed, "this is a terrible idea. Please, think about this!"

"What do you think I've been doing for the past three months?" Ruby asked, a bite entering her voice unbidden no matter how she tried to suppress it. "After everything that's happened… I'm done standing on the sidelines. I'm going to Mistral, and I'm going to figure out what's going on. I'll call you every time we enter a wasteland tower's range, promise."

There was a pregnant pause. "Promise me you'll be all right?" Weiss' voice was small and almost childlike, and it was almost enough to make Ruby turn on her heel and walk home right then and there.

"I promise, Weiss," Ruby swore, a painful smile coming to her lips. "I'll send you a map of our planned route so you know when to expect to hear from me."

"Thank you," Weiss sighed. "Ruby, I…" the Schnee trailed off.

Ruby waited for a time before offering, "Do you want to talk to the others? You don't have to; they'll understand."

"Will they?" Weiss asked, audibly relieved.

"Of course!" Ruby said with a giggle, glancing at Jaune's hard expression. _I doubt you_ want _to talk to him anyway, Weiss, when he's in this bad a mood…_ "They… well." She studied Jaune for a moment and began to understand as she said, "They know how important teammates are."

"Be safe," Weiss ordered, her voice hard. It was redundant, but Ruby understood.

"I will," Ruby promised firmly. "You too."

"I will," Weiss agreed.

"And call Yang sometime soon!" Ruby added, thinking achingly of the girl who still barely if ever got out of her bed. "She misses everyone."

"I will," Weiss repeated. Ruby wasn't certain whether to believe her, but decided to.

Ruby turned away from Jaune to look down the road into the snowy glades before them. They had a long way to go. Now that they were talking, she didn't really want to stop, to have to remember that Weiss was half a world away… but they had to at some point.

"I should go." She said quietly. "Reception's getting spotty already." It was a lie, since they hadn't been moving—or rather, reception had already been a bit spotty as a result of being in the range of the jury-rigged CCT tower that had only poorly substituted for Beacon's.

Weiss sighed. "Very well," she agreed, and her voice was drained. "I'll miss talking to you, Ruby."

"I'll miss you too, Weiss," Ruby said, tears coming unbidden. "I'll call as soon as I can."

"Please do." Weiss' voice was soft, and had that same pleading quality that seemed determined to gouge out Ruby's heart.

Ruby swallowed, casting about wildly for any way to prolong the conversation, to avoid saying goodbye, but there was nothing. Better to bite the bullet, then.

"Goodbye, Weiss," she whispered, and hung up before she could hear her partner's reply.

She shut her eyes tightly as she pocketed the scroll, trying to hold back her tears. There was a crunching of boots in snow behind her before Jaune put his arm around her shoulders.

They stood there for a time in silence, even Nora mercifully restraining herself (or was that Ren's had over her mouth?) until Ruby got herself under control.

"All right," she said, swallowing her last tears. "We've got a lot of road to cover. Let's get to it."

They did.

* * *

The wilds were aptly named. Grimm beset them at every turn, but they were not afraid of Grimm. The creatures were beaten back, time and again.

And yet, they tired.

* * *

Ruby let out a short, harsh gasp as her back collided with the stone of the ruined wall, her miniscule aura reserves barely enough to dampen the blow. The melting snow seeped into her already-waterlogged clothes, chilling already-cold flesh and bone.

"It's just… a few Ursae…" Jaune mumbled from his position beside her. "We should… have this."

Ruby nodded mutely, trying to catch her breath. Behind her, Nora let out a ragged cry followed by an explosion as she brought Magnhild down. An Ursa roared, injured, but not dead—with so little aura left to augment the blow, Nora had been unable to bring it down with the full explosive strength to which she was accustomed.

The Grimm had attacked them in an overgrown forest which had once been a settlement—ruined buildings and crumbling masonry were all that remained of the former township. Ruby had no idea how long this place had been abandoned, or what it was called before, and when they'd closed around their exhausted party in the silver light of the moon, history had been the least of her worries.

It had been four days since they'd found a safe place to camp. Time, and Grimm, had worn them to frustration, which had attracted more Grimm.

Now, when they had so little aura that Ruby wasn't even sure she could activate her Semblance… frustration began to give way to despair.

A figure in green and tipped with pink was thrown over the low wall behind which Ruby and Jaune cowered—Ren. He struck the higher opposite wall of the ruin with a resounding _crack_ as the back of his head impacted and thudded limply to the ground, face turned away from them. Blood began to seep into his hair from the point of impact, and he did not move.

Jaune gasped sharply. "Ren," he mumbled. "No…"

Ruby stared at the prone body, the world seeming to dull around her. _Is he dead?_ she wondered, almost detachedly. _Have I gotten another of my friends killed?_

Her eyes began to water as Nora's scream reached her ears. "REN!"

They closed as her fists clenched. She felt the impact of an Ursa's paws as in leaned on the wall above her; its hot breath tickled her hair.

"Ruby, _move!_ " Jaune screamed at her, but his voice seemed far away, or perhaps she was already half gone.

" _It was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior."_

 _Ruby stared at her uncle, barely able to believe her ears, as he continued. "You see, the creatures of Grimm, the most fearsome monsters mankind had ever encountered, were_ afraid _of those silver-eyed warriors."_

 _Qrow looked at her meaningfully. "They were the best of the best," he said. "It was said that even a single_ look _from one of these fighters could strike a Grimm down. Heh, it's a ridiculous story…" he rolled his eyes._

" _But…" she muttered, "you think that_ I _might be…"_

 _He chuckled, looking down before meeting her eyes. "Well," he said, "a giant monster's currently frozen on top of Beacon tower, and you're here, safe in bed."_

Her hands twitched. _No._

She stood up, her hair brushing the Grimm's teeth as it reared back in surprise.

She turned to face it, and opened her eyes.

They burned like they were on fire. Perhaps they were.

 _Not my friends, you soulless freaks!_ What was what she tried to say, but she didn't she got much out besides, "NNNGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

And there was light.

* * *

She came to slowly, a damp cloth providing cool relief as it rested on her brow. Her eyes opened slowly, flutteringly, and only gradually came to focus on the pink streak over to her left.

Gradually the black head of hair, the pale face, the green garb, and the canvas wall against which Ren was slumped all came into focus too. He was asleep, his head resting on his chest as he lay back against the side of the tent. The flickering light playing across his skin suggested a fire somewhere past her feet where they lay slightly elevated in a rough cot slung between two wooden struts.

She slowly, painfully aware of the soreness of her neck, managed to look down past her feet. The tent flap was pulled wide, opening to night—a different night, she realized, by the moon, which had been full in all its shattered glory last she remembered but was now well into its waning gibbous. A campfire crackled merrily in the center of a circle of tents—larger than she expected, given that the four of them had only two. Indistinct figures were cast flickring shadows across her vision, silhouetted before the fire, and she heard the fait murmuring of voices past the edge of hearing.

But Ren was alive. She smiled, turned back to study him. He seemed none the worse for wear.

She reached up to her brow with slightly-shaking hands and flipped the cloth on her brow, presenting a cooler, untouched side to her skin, before snuggling into the slightly itchy quilt under which she lay and closing her eyes again. People, details, and the morning could wait.

* * *

When next she woke, she was alone, and it was day. She was still in the same cot, but her cloth was gone and the fire had been put out. The tent still opened out to a blue sky over a grassy knoll, and past the hilltop she could see the woods they'd been traversing when they were attacked, the snow capping the trees with white.

Sitting up was a struggle, but she managed it, and then took a moment to rest, her eyes studying the encampment before her. There were four tents with in her field of view. Two Huntsmen teams, with one or two more people in all likelihood.

Jaune and Nora must have dragged her and Ren until they were found. She tried not to think about the absolutely horrible odds they'd been facing.

Crawling out of the tent took some doing, and once she'd managed it, she rested her back against the tent-post for a time, trying to catch her breath as she looked around. The camp was deserted, but it was clearly lived-in; the Huntsmen were likely out on patrol. The watchman had almost certainly seen her get up, but would hopefully know better than to leave his post.

"Ruby, you're up!" Jaune said, running toward her from the line of trees.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I hope you're not the only one on watch," she chided.

He looked sheepish, then shook himself at looked at her sternly, but the twitching of his lips betrayed him. "Well, _you_ shouldn't just be getting up and going around like this! You could hurt yourself!"

She raised an eyebrow. "All right, _Weiss_ ," she grumbled good naturedly, and then was surprised by the stab of pain as she remembered her partner's absence.

Jaune noticed and came forward to nudge her on the shoulder. "Hey," he said gently, getting on his knees beside her. "it's all right. We're only a couple of days out from Peyria, and now that you're awake Dove can give you a transfusion, so we can get there."

Ruby blinked once. "Dove?" she asked. "Dove _Bronzewing_?"

Jaune laughed loudly. "Right," he cackled, "you wouldn't know!"

"Know what?" said a peripherally-familiar voice from behind her tent.

Jaune's grin only widened. "Perfect timing," he said to whoever it was. "Get over here. Russel," he said, gesturing to the lightly-armored Vacuo native who just then crossed into Ruby's vision and noticed her seated there, "meet Ruby. Ruby, Russel Thrush. I don't think you two ever really met."

"We didn't," Russel said with a smile as he knelt beside her. "Good to, though. Feeling any better?"

She nodded, blinking at him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, bemused.

He chuckled. "Short version, Dove," he said. "He told us he met you. 'Pparently you left an impression. He started calling us, trying to get us back together, tried to get Cardin to move for Glynda to put us back on the duty roster. Eventually it all came through, and we got sent out here to try and clear a checkpoint for materials transport into Vale. That was a couple weeks ago; we're still scouting.

"There's five tents," Ruby muttered. "Who else is here?"

Russel shrugged. "Doubt you'd know them," he said. "Fully-trained Huntsman from Vacuo; bit of a trainer for us. He's a family friend of mine, which is why they sent him with us, I think."

Ruby nodded, then glanced at Jaune. "And you're all… getting along?"

Russel's face fell. "Dove wasn't the only one who felt… bad, after everything went down," he said tiredly, but then a grin slid back onto his face. "Don't get me wrong," he declared, giving Jaune a gentle punch on the shoulder, which was taken with a roll of Jaune's eyes. "This kid's still a slick bastard for lying his way into Beacon. But he's earned it now." The smile became brittle. " _Damn_ , has he earned it now."

Jaune shook his head. "They all apologized," he explained to Ruby. "Even Cardin— _especially_ Cardin, really. They're…" he looked slightly confused. "They're really not that bad, you know?"

Ruby remembered a broken young man on Patch, going to sharpen his weapon regularly despite the inability to use it. "Yeah," she agreed with a smile at Russel. "I do."

* * *

One by one, the huntsmen returned to the camp. Ruby was introduced in turn to Cardin and Sky, and Dove greeted her with a grin. He looked immeasurably happier than he had even three months ago, his eyes lit with a glimmer that Ruby knew she had once taken for granted.

Ren and Nora returned together, of course, and the moment Nora saw Ruby up she wordlessly rushed her and threw her arms around the smaller girl.

"Thank you," she said. Ruby expected that to be followed by some babble, or even repetition, but it wasn't.

Ruby smiled and hugged her back. "Anytime," she said softly.

* * *

"My Semblance," Dove said over dinner that night—a hearty, but relatively tasteless stew, suffering from the tendency of wintertime wilderness cooking to be all meat and tubers with no seasonings, "allows me to transfer aura between people. It's easier if they're conscious and consenting, which is why we didn't get you up to speed earlier. For the rest of your team, each of us siphoned just a little aura off and pooled it to top them up. We can do the same for you now that you're awake."

Ruby smiled at him. "Thank you, Dove," she said, rolling one bone-tired shoulder. "I haven't been this aura-depleted since…" she stopped. "Well, actually, it's only been three months," she said lightly, "but that doesn't count."

Cardin snorted. "'Doesn't count,' she says," he grumbled good-naturedly. "Freezes one of the biggest Grimm in recorded history on top of a tower, but no, it 'doesn't count.'"

She, in her infinite wisdom and venerable maturity, stuck her tongue out at him. He returned the gesture with gusto. Russel hit him.

Dove rolled his eyes at them both. "Eat," he told Ruby. "We'll top you up before bed."

She smiled at him, then cocked her head. "How long was I out, by the way?" she asked, glancing around at the party. "A few days, at least."

"Only three," Ren said, "and we've made good time, since the others were also traveling north. It's a good thing you woke when you did, however; they were about to turn back south for assistance."

Ruby nodded at him and noticed that Nora's head was resting idly on his shoulder. Her lips twitched.

"Good," she said firmly, meeting the gaze of the Vacuan Huntsman, a man in gold by the name of Flax Fields. "Thank you for your help," she said gratefully.

He gave her a wry smile. "No trouble, Miss," he said. "We all need to stick together these days."

She nodded, chuckling dryly. "That we do," she agreed, ignoring the old hurt, like a shard of glass in her chest. _Why aren't we?_

* * *

"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed as soon as the ringing stopped. "How have you been?"

They had reached Peyria four days after that evening with CRDL, having broken camp the next morning. They had immediately booked a stay at the local inn—a single room with two beds—and Ruby was now seated on her bed, alone, as the other three ran various errands from restocking to reconnaissance.

"You're one day behind schedule," Weiss informed her, her familiar voice frosty. "I was worried."

Ruby giggled, even Weiss hostility unable to burst her bubble. "Come on, Weiss," she said, "We don't even have a real timestamp for the plan; we just know how far we expect to travel each day!"

"From which I calculated an expected timing plan," Weiss said flatly, as though this was nothing unusual. Ruby blinked. "What kept you? What was the delay?"

Ruby laughed again, nodding at Jaune as he came in through the door. "You'll never believe this," she said, amused. "Guess who we ran into?"

"Who?" Weiss asked blankly.

"CRDL!" Ruby chuckled. "They were on their way back into Vale, along with a Huntsman trainer. We took an afternoon off to camp with them."

Jaune glanced at her sharply, but she waved him off.

"You camped with CRDL?" Weiss' voice was dripping with shock. "As in, _Cardin Wichester's_ team?"

"Yep!" Ruby said, her smile fading as she thought of the four transformed young men… and the journey that had brought them to their new selves. "They've… really grown up, Weiss. Cardin apologized to Jaune the moment he saw us, and they were all really sad about what happened to Pyrrha. I actually met Dove a couple of times during the fall; he lives on Patch, too." She thought of an unshaven, depressed young man in battered armor. "He's not so bad—not anymore, anyway."

"Well," Weiss said slowly, "I'm glad of that, I suppose. If you had to be late… I suppose that was as good a reason as any."

Ruby carefully didn't think of being unconscious with aura exhaustion for three days. Instead, she just laughed. "Weiss," she said, giggling, "Stop mothering me! It's fine; we've barely had to fight any Grimm at all! They're scared of me, after all."

Jaune looked like he wanted to take the phone from her and scream the truth before she could stop him, but he held himself back.

"Of course they are, Ruby." There was laughter in Weiss' voice. "Of course they are. But do be careful, won't you?"

"I—" Ruby began, confused, and then realized. _Why did Weiss think I was joking when I said the Grimm are scared of me? Because I never told her what Uncle Qrow said._

It was a sobering thought. There was a time when something like that would have been in Weiss' ear almost before Ruby had finished hearing it. Strange to think that time was only a few short months ago.

"I will," she said, trying to keep her voice light. "I promise. All four of us will get to Mistral safe."

"I'll hold you to that," Weiss told her.

Ruby chuckled. "I have to go," she said. "Next stop is Port North; I'll call you from there."

"I'll expect you in thirty-two days," Weiss said grimly. "And so help me, if you're late again, I will come south myself and drag you back to Patch where you're _safe_."

Ruby swallowed. _Please do_ , she wanted to say. _Please come back._ "I'll… I'll take that under advisement," she said, trying to keep her voice level. "Remember who's the leader here, though!"

Weiss snorted. "All right, all right. It's been good to hear from you. Call back if you want to talk more before you leave for the port, won't you?"

Ruby nodded. "I might call in the morning," she agreed.

"If you're not busy," Weiss said. "Good night, Ruby. Sleep well."

"You too," Ruby said, and hung up.

Jaune met her gaze and held it. "Pyrrha liked me," he said quietly. "You knew that, I think."

She glanced away. "Of course she liked you!" she said with false cheer. "You were her partner!"

"You know what I mean."

Ruby looked back at him. His blue eyes were cold.

"Yeah," she saighed. "I do."

"Ren told me," Jaune said quietly. "After she was gone. I… I didn't know what to do with that. Still don't. How the hell could someone like her ever even…" he sighed. "Doesn't matter," he said. "Not the point. The point is… Remnant might look very different right now, if my partner and I had just been _honest_ with one another."

Ruby's breath caught.

Jaune set his bag down beside her bed with a sigh and began unpacking his bedclothes and toiletries, looking away from her. "I know you don't want to worry Weiss," he said, quietly. "But she wants to worry about you. She cares, Ruby, and let's be honest." He met her eyes again. "You want her to," he said. "No, you _need_ her to. So let her, all right?"

Ruby swallowed. "I'm not calling her back," she said distantly. "She's busy, I can't just…"

"You don't want to have to go back right away," Jaune acknowledged. "Fine, I'm not going to make you. But you're going to have to be honest with her at some point. For your own sake."

"I will," she said. Then she glanced at his pyjamas on her bed. "Aren't you in the other bed with Ren?" she asked.

"No," Jaune said, a muscle suddenly jumping in his jaw. "I'll pull out my sleeping bag."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Nora," Jaune said shortly.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him. "Is that… normal, for your team?"

"As of you saving our lives a week ago, it is," Jaune said, rummaging for something in his bag.

Ruby's eyes widened. "So wait, Nora…"

"Yep," Jaune said. "Decided to be honest with her partner."

Ruby swallowed. "That's… great," she said, a smile breaking across her face. "That's really…"

"You'll need these," Jaune said, producing a pair of earplugs.

Ruby's face fell as she stared at them. "You're kidding," she said flatly. "I'm _underage_."

Jaune shrugged. "You're welcome to try to convince Nora of what is and isn't acceptable to do," he said dryly. "I wish you the best of luck."

* * *

The road from Peyria to Port North was better maintained, better traveled, and better guarded; they encountered the Grimm, over the one-month journey, but were never threatened by them to the degree they had been just before reaching Peyria. They reached Port North unscathed, and Ruby called Weiss as soon as they had reception.

It wasn't Weiss who answered.

"You've reached Weiss-cream's scroll," said a painfully familiar, laughing voice over the faint sound of a struggle away from the receiver. "She can't reach the scroll right now because she's _weak_. Leave a message and I'll be sure to deliver it to her completely—"

" _Yang?_ " Ruby shrieked, having finally overcome her amazement. " _What are you doing with Weiss' scroll?_ "

"Sis!" Yang cried happily. "I didn't get to see the Caller ID, only that Weiss actually _wanted_ to take the call. How're you doing? You're in Port North, right?"

"Just walking into town now," she said dazedly. Nora and Jaune were both laughing at her, she noticed, but she found she didn't mind. A grin came across her face. "Better question: What are _you_ doing in _Atlas_?"

" _Well_ ," said Yang, and her tone somehow reminded Ruby of Nora winding up for a swing of Magnhild. "These Atlesian military techs sure are _handy_ with these combat prosthetics."

Ruby couldn't help the groan that escaped even in the heat of her excitement. "You got—" she began, but Yang rolled over her.

"I mean," she continued merrily, "After telling Ironwood to _talk to the hand_ a few months back, I thought they might _give me the finger_ when I asked for _handouts_ , but they just gave me a _thumbs up_ and we _shook_ on it."

Ruby let out a strangled cry as laughter began to burst from her chest unbidden in a veritable flood. "Stop, Yang, _please!_ " she cried. "It's so _bad!_ "

"Some of those were a bit _underhanded_ , yeah," Yang admitted gaily. "Hey!"

There was a scuffle, and then Weiss' voice came on. " _How do you deal with her?_ " she asked wildly. "She's insufferable!"

"Ruby's good at dealing with me," said Yang loudly enough the be heard. "I gotta _hand_ it to her."

"Give the phone back for a second, Weiss," Ruby requested.

"Very well," Weiss said, and there was the sound of the receiver being transferred over.

"You will stop," Ruby ordered, "or I will tell Weiss about that time over the summer when you had the nightmare about her, made of ice cream, and trying to eat Blake's brain with a spoon."

There was silence. "You don't pull your _pun_ ches, do you?" Yang asked.

" _Test me, Yang_ ," Ruby said, her eyes narrowed and her voice deadly. " _Test me and find out how serious I am._ "

"All right, all right, jeez." Ruby could only imagine Yang rolling her eyes. "Pushy much? I'll stop."

"Good," Ruby said. "Put this thing on speaker."

Yang did.

"How are you, Ruby?" Weiss asked immediately. "How was the trip from Peyria?"

"That part was fine," Ruby said with a glance at Jaune, who was still chuckling, but also still watching her. "But… I have a confession to make, Weiss."

"Oh?" Weiss asked, and there was something in her voice that Ruby couldn't place.

"I… may have not been totally honest about how well the first leg of our trip went," Ruby admitted.

There was a pause.

"Talk," Weiss ordered shortly.

Ruby did. She told them everything; from Qrow's story about the silver-eyed warriors, to her experience with the Dragon and the repetition with the Ursae. The aura exhaustion, being out for three days, and Dove's aura transfer.

Yang interjected here and there with the occasional minor comment, but Weiss was deadly silent through the entire narrative. She remained so when Ruby subsided.

"Well," Yang broke the quiet. "Sounds like you had an eventful time."

"Understatement of the century," Ruby said quietly.

Another pause.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, and she knew her voice was small and weak and pathetic and she couldn't bring herself to care.

"I could understand not telling me about the… incident with the Ursae," Weiss said, and her voice was cold. "I… understand, not wanting to worry someone you care about. But why, exactly, did I never hear about this 'silver eyes' madness?"

Ruby winced. "I just… never thought about it when we were talking," she defended. "I'd have told you if I'd thought about it, I promise!"

"It's hard," Yang said quietly, suddenly, "to keep people up to date when you only talk to them once a month instead of living with them."

Ruby twitched, and she felt like curling up into a ball and hiding for a while.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said.

"I am too," Ruby whispered. _Why am I here?_ She wondered, looking over at Jaune and Nora and Ren. Nora was chattering to Ren, who was indulgently attending to her with a smile on his face, but Jaune was watching her with a sad look in his eyes.

 _What was so important about coming to Mistral that it took precedence over RWBY?_ she wondered. _Why did I decided to take a trip here instead of to Atlas, or to try to find Blake? Why didn't I stay with Yang?_

The answer, of course, was obvious.

"I'm sorry, too," Ruby whispered, her breath catching in a sob. "I'm sorry I ran away."

"We all are," Yang said, and her voice was steady and strong. "We all screwed up, we're all sorry. _I_ forgive you both. I forgive Blake, too, and I have every intention of telling her as much soon. You go to Mistral, Ruby; _someone_ has to. Yeah, we all screwed up, but we'd never have had the chance if it wasn't for that bitch. We—not you, or I, or just two of us—all of us are going to _make her pay_. So you get on that ferry, Ruby, and Weiss and I will see you soon."

Ruby smiled. "Promise?"

"I promise," Yang said firmly. "If I have anything to say about it, RWBY will be back together by the summer. But in the meantime, Jaune, Ren, and Nora need you. Get them to Haven, and then we'll talk, since you're already in Port North."

"Okay," Ruby said. "Okay, we'll be in town soon and we'll get our tickets right away."

"Good," Yang said. "I—hold on. Gotta go—scroll ringing. See you soon, Ruby. Love you."

"Love you too, Yang," Ruby said.

There was a shuffling as Yang left the area.

"For what it's worth," Weiss said, "I promise too. I'll see you soon, Ruby."

"I'll hold you to that," Ruby whispered.

There was a pause.

"Weiss!" Yang's voice distantly hollered. "Glitters has got something! We need to be in Vale yesterday!"

"I'd best go," Weiss said. "We're…" she paused. "It might be nothing," she hedged. "It'll be a surprise if it works out and no disappointment if it doesn't, okay?"

"All right, Weiss," Ruby giggled damply. "You'll be safe?"

"As safe as if I was warm in bed," Weiss promised sincerely.

"Good," Ruby sighed. "Go. Good luck. I'll… I'll see you soon."

* * *

Seafaring Grimm existed. Ferries between the continents were thus staffed with a _lot_ of Huntsmen.

Since the sea was not the province of humans, Grimm grew old—and, thus, wise—there. So when they realized that ships were not safe targets, they stopped attacking them.

As such, the voyage from Port North to Mistral was largely uneventful.

When Ruby got off the boat, she had few expectations about what she might see. She was ready for nearly anything; the entire kingdom to be destroyed before they arrived, or a battle in progress. Perhaps Cinder might be waiting for them on the docks, her hands aflame with aura and whatever else she'd used against Pyrrha.

 _Nothing_ could have prepared her for the three figures smiling and waving from the pier as the ship pulled in.

Blake's hair was longer than Ruby remembered, and though it looked recently groomed it looked as though she hadn't had it properly taken care of since the team had split. No bow was covering her ears now; the velvety black accessories twitched freely in the sea-breeze. Her smile was positively radiant as she waved with her left hand, her right entwined around Yang's shoulders.

Yang's left hand was about Blake, too, holding the Faunus close, the pale hand resting on her teammate's hip. The golden prosthetic seemed almost luminous in the half-light under the marine layer of mist and cloud as it rose above her head and waved vigorously at the approaching vessel. Her teeth were white and glimmering in the widest smile Ruby remembered ever seeing on her face.

Weiss stood apart from the pair, her white dress clinging to her form just as beautifully as Ruby remembered. Her long white hair looked almost ethereal among the mists, and her pale skin was like fine china in the gloom. One white hand was raised and waving with as much force as either of the others, and her smile was more open and honest than Ruby had ever dreamed of seeing.

"Jaune?" she whispered to the young man beside her even as she waved back. "Am I dreaming?"

"No," he said, a smile in his voice—she couldn't see his face, given that she was staring shoreward. "No, this is real."

The boat took several eternities too long to dock. The VIPs took a similar span of time to get off. General disembarking seemed to arrive only after several galaxies had completed their life-cycles.

Ruby was the first off the boat, and within seconds she and three other girls were little more than a mess of tangled limbs and laughter and tears.

"Welcome home, Ruby," whispered Blake in her ear, even in the midst of all that.

Ruby kissed her on the cheek; she kissed all of them on the cheeks, several times, over the course of that hours-long moment. "You too, Blake," she said.

And so Remnant was whole again.

* * *

" _Sail on, silver girl,  
Sail on by.  
Your time has come to shine.  
All your dreams are on their way:  
See how they shine.  
Oh, if you need a friend,  
I'm sailing right behind.  
Like a bridge over troubled water,  
I will ease your mind.  
Like a bridge over troubled water,  
I will ease your mind."_

-Simon and Garfunkel, _Bridge Over Troubled Water_

* * *

 **A/N: It's good to be done with this project. I like to think I did Ruby justice here. Comments on that score are appreciated, but—as always—not solicited. If you've got something to say, I welcome it; if not, don't feel pressured.**


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